SPOTLIGHT IMMIGRATION DEBATE

Astronaut says undocumented immigrants should be legalized in U.S.

MEXICO CITY — He might have soared a gazillion miles into outer space, but back here on Earth, U.S. astronaut Jose Hernandez has stepped knee-deep in controversy.

After the shuttle returned to Earth last week, Hernandez, the California-born son of Mexican immigrants, told Mexican television that he thought the United States should legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants living there so that they can work openly in the U.S. because they are important to the economy.

Officials at NASA hastened to announce that Hernandez was speaking for himself.

"It all became a big scandal," Hernandez said on television this week. "Even the lawyers were speaking to me."

Hernandez was back on Mexican network Televisa's morning chat show, and the host asked about the controversy.

"I work for the U.S. government, but as an individual I have a right to my personal opinions," he said in a video hookup from a restaurant owned by his wife in Houston.

He added that it seems impractical to try to deport 12 million people. In the previous day's conversation, he spoke of circling the globe in 90 minutes and marveling at a world without borders.